Interior Minister Backs Kingibe’s Call For More Women In Military, Para-military

The minister of Interior, Hon Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, has echoed the call by Senator Ireti Kingibe for the recruitment of more women into the military and paramilitary services.

The minister, who was represented at a meeting with the Board of the Civil Defence, Fire, Correctional and Immigration Services by Ja’afaru Ahmed, the secretary of the board said the Bola Tinubu administration is in favour of getting more women into these services.

“The Federal Government has reviewed the guidelines for recruitment into the Civil Defence, Fire, Correctional and Immigration Services to accommodate more women,” he said emphasising that, 35 percent of recruitment into the services would be allocated to women.

The minister’s comment comes two months after Senator Ireti Kingibe, representing the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), had urged military and paramilitary authorities to promote gender inclusivity by recruiting more women into their organisations.

The senator who spoke during a three-day sensitisation workshop titled, “Enhancing Gender Responsive Security Operations and Community Dialogue Project (Phase II)” jointly organised by the National Defence College, the National Institute for Legal and Democratic Studies (NILDS), and UN Women, stated that recruiting more women into these services would promote gender responsiveness and diversity.

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She urged the active involvement of women and marginalised youth by these services.

“Develop and utilise gender disaggregated data to understand the specific security needs of different demographics, specifically women. Inclusive recruitment and leadership. We all know that every aspect of the military can do better than they have been doing in the past. We are here to promote diversity and inclusivity within the security forces by encouraging the recruitment of more women and create pathways for their professionalism, development, leadership within the security sector,” The FCT senator said.

Senator Kingibe, who also is chair of the Senate Committee on Women Affairs had also said at the occasion that it was imperative for more women to be included in governance as their input would be critical.

“We are the giants of Africa and we need to start thinking like giants in every way. As long as we don’t legislate on issues concerning women, we won’t achieve much,” she said.